Today’s Gospel is St. Luke’s account of Jesus healing a blind man. The man is sitting by the roadside begging and people tell him that “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He immediately shouts, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!”, a cry he continues to shout out despite the efforts of those around him to shut him up.
As He so often does, when Jesus has the man brought before Him, He asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replies, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus’ response tells us something important. He tells the man, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.”
Jesus restored the man’s physical sight, a wonderful gift for someone without the ability to see the sky, flowers and the faces of those around him. But even before the physical cure, the man had the more important sight – he had the ability to see Jesus for who He was, to know that Jesus was the source of his healing. His eyes may have been blind, but he had the sight of faith – and, as Jesus tells him, that is what saved him. The physical healing was just the icing on the cake.
St. Albert the Great, whose feast the Catholic Church celebrates today, talking about the need to contemplate and draw close to God, reminds us “not by his bodily organs or outward senses does a man attain to this.” Rather it is by our intenal sight.
May we have the sight of the blind man who recognized Jesus in his heart.
Creo en Dios! 